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Abel (Arthur Goullet) is convicted to death for the murder of a New York lawyer
he did not commit.
Only young chorus girl Jenny (Anna Lee) could prove Abel's innocence, but since mob boss Brent (Francis L.Sullivan) is the man
really behind the hit, she is framed for a theft & sent to jail in
England. Only a few days before Abel's execution she gets out of prison herself
& tries to convince Scotland Yard inspector Jimmy Grant (John Loder) that
she would be a witness for the defence - with little success.
But since Jenny is a good girl & can't let an innocent man die, she
decides to go to New York on her own, but since she is a poor girl, too, she
has to go there as a stowaway ...
& the means of her transportation is quite something in its own right -
a multilevel propeller-driven airplane, complete with cabins like an ocean
steamer & an outdoor balcony (!) - a great piece of retro-futurism from
today's point of view.
And on board it seems, everybody remotely involved in the crime-case seems
to meet: mob-boss Brent himself, posing as a Paraguayan dictator, blackmailer
Sam Pryor (Frank Cellier), smelling something fishy going on where he could
make a buck or two, Scotland Yard inspector Jimmy Brent, & the always
annoying child prodigy Arnold (Desmond Tester) with his even more annoying aunt
Veronica (Athene Seyler). & while Jimmy decides to give the girl a break
after all & secretly pays for her passage, Sam - claiming that he paid for
the passage - soon wins Jenny's trust posing as a police superintendent, &
has her tell her whole story - & finds out what not even Jenny herself
knows yet: That she actually saw Brent himself at the scene of the crime &
could turn witness of the prosecution against him.
An elaborate scheme to blackmail the man is quickly made up, but it
eventually leads to Sam himself being killed. Brent then proceeds to kill
Jenny, too, but since Arnold saw Sam's murder, he spills the beans to Jimmy
just in time to prevent Brent from killing Jenny - but that drives Brent over
the edge, so he sabotages the plane, kills the pilot locks the cockpit shut
& jumps off by parachute.
Only by climbing into the cockpit from the outside (!) can Jimmy save the
day after all.
Of course, he now believes Jenny, & together the 2 save Abel from execution &
end up as lovers.
But Brent you might ask. When taking the parachute, what he didn't know was
that this specific parachute was accidently sabotaged by Arnold, looking for
something to stuff his saxophone with, & so Brent, when trying to jump to
safety, jumped to his death instead.
Superb & highly entertaining thriller that manages to keep up the
suspense throughout, despite the fact that there is not much mystery involved -
all the characters' motives are clear from the beginning & wouldn't change
throught he whole movie. Contributing to the entertainment value of the film is
the great, back then futuristic idea of an nonstop-airliner complete with
cabins & balconies, that makes a nice backdrop to the movies proceedings
without ever its raison d'etre. Also, Anna Lee makes a nice, lively leading
lady.
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